To my fellow American friends, I hope your Independence Day weekend has been safe and fun. And what would be more appropriate that reading a book on America’s Pastime, baseball? This book takes a look at the two New York teams leading up to their match-up in the 2000 World Series.
Title/Author:
“Get Your Tokens Ready: The Late 1990’s Road to the Subway Series” by Chris Donnelly
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review: While I usually do not consider the title of a book in the thoughts of whether or not I wish to read it. But the title of this one certainly caught my attention. I did recall that Michael Kay, broadcaster for the New York Yankees, exclaimed this catchy phrase when the Yankees clinched the American League championship in 2000, setting up a World Series against the New York Mets in what would be dubbed the “Subway Series.”
Author Chris Donnelly, who has penned two other books on New York baseball, does a nice job with this one as well. Starting with the first regular season game between the Mets and Yankees, Donnelly takes the reader inside the stands, dugouts, locker rooms and front offices of both the Mets and Yankees leading up the Yankees becoming the kings of New York baseball for at least that time.
Donnelly spares practically no one from either club during the period of 1997-2000 from getting at least a mention in the book. From Mets pitcher Dave Mlicki to Yankees utility man Luis Sojo, Donnelly spans these four seasons with great detail about the two New York clubs both on and off the field. These two players were chosen because the bookend this period covered in the book - Mlicki was the winning pitcher in that first ever 1997 interleague game between the two New York teams and Sojo drove in the winning run in game 5 of the Subway Series to win it for the Yankees.
There is not a lot of extra material in the book such as short biographies or side stories. Practically every word has some connection to the performances on the field or activities by the front offices to improve the teams. The closest story that can be considered to be a side bar would be that of Mlicki, whose outstanding performance in that 1997 game is the subject of a few short chapters interspersed between the longer ones on the two clubs.
It was mentioned in the book, as well as the media at that time, there there would likely be little interest outside of the New York metropolitan area in the Subway Series. Without being quite that harsh, this is a book that would certainly appeal to fans of the Yankees or Mets but might not hold the interest of fans of other teams. Or, if a reader is a baseball historian or just one who likes books that concentrate on the game (I fall into this category), then they should check it out as well.
I wish to thank the University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
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